Dan's Papers - October 10, 2008

You've seen them all over the Hamptons: bikers, joggers and other outdoor enthusiasts who move to the beat of their iPods. But those little white ear buds - or even worse, the Bose noise canceling headphones - isolate exercisers from an outside world that's full of cars, sirens and audible signals necessary for safety. For many exercisers, music is a motivating factor to get through the miles (I prefer Madonna when I'm sweating). Audio Bone Headphones, the latest product in headphone technology, safely allow bikers and joggers to do both, and safely too.

The one and only requirement of these new headphones is that you have bones. Milk drinkers welcome. Blobs need not apply. Audio Bone promotes "ear free listening." It's been proven that we hear sounds through both our bones and our eardrums. The eardrum converts sound waves to vibrations and transmits them to the inner ear but there are some cases where sounds are heard directly by the inner ear, bypassing the eardrums. Experts suggest that this is the way that you hear your own voice, not to mention how whales hear. But it's difficult to claim that Audio Bone is a new technology because it's been around since Beethoven was composing music. (Beethoven, who was partially deaf, discovered bone conduction by finding a way to hear music through his jawbone - he attached a rod to his piano and clenched it in his teeth.) Until Audio Bone, no product in the realm of bone conduction has offered high fidelity, calcium heavy, sound.

In the Dan's Papers office, there are a few of us, myself included, who use headphones to help shut out extraneous office distractions. But it seems more often than not that I have only one ear bud in so that I'm able to participate in necessary conversations or phone calls. Audio Bone is a great alternative because the headphones rest on the outside of my ears, making no audible noise to the desks near me (sometimes with ear buds or wrap around headphones noise leaks and coworkers can hear the low buzz of your tunes) while allowing me to be active in the workspace with my music.

Aside from these benefits, the headphones are also waterproof. All you would have to do is purchase a waterproof mp3 player case or iPod case and you would be set for swimming at any of the East End beaches. Aside from looking a little strange coming out of the water, you're actually contributing to your hearing health. Listening to loud sounds for an extended period of time can damage eardrums, and while bustin' a move to the DJ may seem like fun when you're young, it will eventually cause damage as you age. In this case, hearing music through your bones, the headphones serve as your actual eardrums as they decode sound waves and convert them into vibrations that can be received directly by the inner ear.

Just imagine never having to wedge another uncomfortable ear bud into your cartilage or shudder at the notion of having to borrow headphones that have been in someone else's ear.